The White House of Donald "can't stop, won't stop" Trump repeatedly asked former White House counsel Don McGahn, a star witness in the special counsel's Russia report, to publicly state that he didn't think Trump had obstructed justice. The New York Times writes:
White House officials asked at least twice in the past month for the key witness against President Trump in the Mueller report, Donald F. McGahn II, to say publicly that he never believed the president obstructed justice, according to two people briefed on the requests.
Mr. McGahn, who was the president’s first White House counsel, declined, one of the people said. His reluctance angered Mr. Trump, who believed that Mr. McGahn showed disloyalty by telling investigators for the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, about Mr. Trump’s attempts to maintain control over the Russia investigation.
White House officials sought to get out in front of what they clearly knew was a damning portrait of Trump's repeated efforts to obstruct and end Robert Mueller’s investigation. Once the Justice Department had provided the report to White House lawyers in advance of its public release, Trump aides made a request to McGahn's lawyer, William Burck. "Reading the report, the president’s lawyers saw that Mr. Mueller had left out that Mr. McGahn had told investigators that he believed Mr. Trump never obstructed justice," writes the Times.
They figured if they could convince McGahn to come out publicly, it would soothe Trump's ruffled feathers and provide them with a weapon to help neutralize McGahn's testimony in the obstruction probe. Burck is quoted in the article asserting that they didn't view the White House ask "sinister."
“We did not perceive it as any kind of threat or something sinister,” Burck said in a statement. “It was a request, professionally and cordially made.”
Well, good for them. The fact is, Burck's client spent the bulk of his time at the White House trying to keep Trump from obliterating the rule of law in this country, but sure, nothing to see here. Just because McGahn and his chief of staff saw fit to document practically all the "crazy shit" Trump asked them to do so they wouldn't end up in jail, doesn't mean Trump was actually flouting the law or anything.
McGahn reportedly thought about complying with the request, but once he saw the report, decided against it. In other words, once McGahn saw all the evidence Mueller had amassed, he knew he would look like a legal halfwit if he followed through with Trump’s "no obstruction" request.
The Wall Street Journal also posted a version of this story separately on Friday afternoon.
McGahn has been subpoenaed to testify before the Judiciary Committee on May 21. "If he doesn't, he'll be subject to contempt," Judiciary chair Jerry Nadler said Friday. "He has to respect the rule of law like anybody else."